Sprinkling fairydust? Is that what the kids call it now?
Alert Janeite Franka sent us news that the IMDB listing for the upcoming BBC Sense and Sensibility miniseries has been updated with several cast members; interestingly, the apothecary who attends Marianne is listed but not Colonel Brandon! Fortunately, Franka also sent us a press release from the BBC about filming, which includes confirmation that David Morrissey is indeed playing Colonel Brandon as has been previously rumored. The press release calls it a “three-part adaptation” and we believe that means three hour-long episodes.
Sense And Sensibility is a story of two young sisters on a voyage of burgeoning sexual and romantic discovery.
Of course it is.
Producer Anne Pivcevic adds: “Our version explores the female gaze, the men are very much the sex objects as we follow the story through the women’s eyes.”
Interesting–there is an essay, we cannot recall the name at the moment but we’re sure someone will find it for us, that claims S&S95 does exactly the same thing. (We think it’s in Jane Austen in Hollywood but are not perfectly sure–might be a back number of Persuasions.)
“It’s a passionate and powerful piece, filled with a rich mix of both emerging and established talent. With Andrew’s fairydust sprinkled over it
*snicker*
“Together with the wonderful return of Dame Judi Dench to BBC One in Elizabeth Gaskell’s Cranford Chronicles
*squeeeeees off-topically*
Sense And Sensibility is filming on location in Berkshire, Surrey, Buckinghamshire and Devon until early June.
Alert Janeite Melanie also forwarded an article from The Times about the adaptation. We’re not sure if the writer actually spoke with Andrew Davies or just, er, interpreted the press release creatively.
Stung by ITV’s ratings, the BBC is returning to Austen in partnership with Andrew Davies, the award-winning screenwriter who reinvented Pride and Prejudice for the 1995 serial, starring Firth.
Actually, this production was planned long before the ITV films were aired, so the ratings were not known.
Davies, whose reputation for adding lashings of eroticism to period pieces is well-earned, promised that his Sense will be “Sex in the City set in the country.”
Oh, that roguish man! What a joker he is! But we shall not be taken in. We’re sure everyone will just be holding hands and maybe there will be a chaste kiss on the cheek or two.
In the story of two young sisters on a voyage of sexual and romantic discovery after the death of their father, the BBC has cast two relative unknowns as female leads.
This can be a good thing, but being a thoroughly cynical Middle-Aged Austen Whore, we suspect it was done in the interest of not having to pay Keira Knightley-level wages. 
April 13th, 2007 at 11:26 am
So then was it the reporter or Mr. Davies who got the title of Sex and the City wrong?
Fairydust? I haven’t been all that with-it lately, so maybe it’s just me, but I find this to be an odd reference. Do they mean like Peter Pan? Think happy thoughts and maybe the production will fly?
April 13th, 2007 at 11:37 am
It means: he fixed what was “wrong” with it.
Or less cynically put, he made the story what they consider to be more palatable to modern audiences. The part in italics is important.
April 13th, 2007 at 12:28 pm
How did Austen’s work manage survive all those years before Mr. Davies came along to Explain It All To Us?
Paging Mr. Lee! Paging Mr. Ang Lee!
And I’m also glad to see another Elizabeth Gaskell adaptation coming along. I lurrrved North & South and Wives & Daughters; not just for the eye-candy either!
April 13th, 2007 at 2:03 pm
Says AD, “The novel is as much about sex and money as social conventions. This drama is more overtly sexual than most previous Austen adaptations seen on screen and gets to grips with the dark underbelly of the book,” saliva oozing out from the corner of his mouth.
I just hope that Mr Davies did not make STD the cause of Marianne’s illness. Until it finally airs, I shall be looking at it with a satirical eye, ad utrumque paratus.
But Cranford Chronicles looks really promising. I don’t imagine Heidi Thomas requires fairydust to come up with a good script. With Dame Judi and Mrs Gaskell… how can they go wrong? BBC may very well have the last laugh yet, in this (so far) annus horribilis Jane Austen season.
April 13th, 2007 at 2:54 pm
Does anybody really read or enjoy Jane Austen for her dark underbellies? As it were.
April 13th, 2007 at 3:03 pm
oh I so hope it’s 3 hours! Well, AD knows his 5/6 hour P+P was a resounding success, and that the ITV JA Season 1 and 1/2 or 2 hour thing did not work well. Mansfield Park was butchered, Persuasion had little (at least not enough) character growth and Northanger Abbey was okay, but missed stuff that should have been in there (because, seriously, we Janeites only get one NA every fricking 2 decades, while we get everything else at least once a decade, so it had better be good!)
David Morrissey scared me in Our Mutual Friend, I don’t know about him as Col. Brandon! Well, he does have a nice smile when it does appear.
April 13th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
I wonder if David Morrissey just submitted a copy of “Basic Instinct 2″ for his audition. That seems to be all they’d need to cast the male lead in yet another sex-centric Davies adaptation. ;P The man must be trembling with delight over that bit of casting.
April 13th, 2007 at 3:47 pm
Chantel–I think the BBC is more to be thanked for the length of this series. The script I have of NA is from way before the ITV series was planned (it’s dated November 2000) and it is 90 pages long. Film scripts are generally understood to be one page per minute of running time–so that’s a 90-minute film. If AD thought it should have been longer, wouldn’t he have made his script longer?
Think about it: P&P95 clocks in at about 5 hours; Bleak House got eight; North and South got four hours; so how come S&S only rates three hours? It’s television, it’s multi-episode, it’s a miniseries, why not go for it? EACH FILM of The Lord of the Rings trilogy was three hours long, and they were theatrical films!
All of a sudden I feel cheated.
April 13th, 2007 at 3:50 pm
Oh wow!! Jean Marsh will be in it!! She was always my favourite in Upstairs, Downstairs. And David Morrissey is a fab actor so I am quite happy he is in it!
April 13th, 2007 at 5:09 pm
More of the cast is listed on IMDB now.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0847150/
April 13th, 2007 at 5:37 pm
Where? I’m seeing the same group as this morning when I posted the link.
April 13th, 2007 at 5:49 pm
Elinor Dashwood…..Hattie Morahan
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Marianne Dashwood….Charity Wakefield
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Edward Ferrars…..Dan Stevens
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Colonel Brandon…..David Morrisey
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John Willoughby…..Dominic Cooper
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Margaret Dashwood…..Lucy Boynton
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Mrs. Dashwood….Janet McTeer
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Miss Steele….Daisy Haggard
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(I don’t know if this is supposed to be Lucy or if it’s Anne and they haven’t listed Lucy yet. I have the feeling poor Anne is going to be cut from this adaptation.)
Fanny Dashwood…..Claire Skinner
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John Dashwood…..Mark Gatiss
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Mrs. Jennings….Linda Bassett
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Sir John Middleton….Mark Williams
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Mrs. Ferrars….Jean Marsh
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Mr. Harris…..Damien Thomas
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At the moment I cannot think of who Mr. Harris is in S&S. Can someone help me remember?
April 13th, 2007 at 6:03 pm
I don’t see it any different from this morning (six hours ago) either. Anyway, I found some information on the lead actor, Hattie Morahan. She looks good as Elinor. PFD has her character down as Eleanor. Should we set Heather Anne loose on these people?Hattie on PFDAnd she sounds great! Click on the audio samples links to hear her.Hattie on SueTerryVoices
April 13th, 2007 at 6:05 pm
Sorry! My fault! I didn’t read the whole thing when I posted about the cast list.
April 13th, 2007 at 6:25 pm
Oh. Good. We get what really happened at Mrs. Allen’s. And the real reason why Robert married Lucy.
You know, if they want Davies to adapt an Austen book and have it filled with sex why not let him tackle Lady Susan? What a perfect match!
April 13th, 2007 at 8:55 pm
“Sense And Sensibility is a story of two young sisters on a voyage of burgeoning sexual and romantic discovery.”
“Of course it is.”
Excellent sarcasm. I haven’t wanted to believe this but I finally think AD is a perverted old man who should be watching Benny Hill in his arm chair.
Certainly this isn’t my field of expertise, but I would suppose that young people’s romantic discovery would usually include sexual discovery in time, but playing that up in everything is like watching nature shows entirely made up of animals making babies. Some things can be private. I’m sure sex was not first on Elinor’s mind when becoming attracted to Edward. It’s those extremes again! run!
April 14th, 2007 at 3:05 am
Sense And Sensibility is a story of two young sisters on a voyage of burgeoning sexual and romantic discovery.
Why do Austen adaptations always end up being about BURGEONING SEXUAL DESIRE? ::rolls eyes::
April 14th, 2007 at 6:06 pm
Because the dingbats making them think that’s the only thing that will make people tune in these days. But I’m heartened that they’re giving three hours to it.
April 14th, 2007 at 6:16 pm
Sylvia, sorry your post got caught in the spam filter–too many links, I think! Mr. Harris is the apothecary who attends Marianne at Cleveland.
April 14th, 2007 at 7:02 pm
David Morrissey is going to be Col. Brandon? But…. he was Bradley Headstone in Our Mutual Friend! I’m not saying he won’t do a good job–he was great as Bradley H., but I think I’ll be a bit freaked out, especially at the beginning.
April 15th, 2007 at 5:09 pm
Maureen, I thought the same thing! Hopefully he won’t be a crazy, stalker-ish Brandon!
April 15th, 2007 at 6:21 pm
Casting looks really good to me.
April 16th, 2007 at 8:31 am
Sexual discovery with Mr. Headstone?
I think that if I were Marianne and Bradley Headstone had been my introduction to sexuality, lifelong celibacy would be the only option.
Poor Marianne. Maybe Rickman will burst into the room and whisk her away to safety, a wedding, and a proper introduction.
That’d be sensational enough for Andrew Davies, methinks.